Andrew Fletcher
Impacts of Professionalization and Wellbeing Policies on Scottish Prison Workers
Fletcher, Andrew; McKie, Linda; MacPherson, Isobel; Tombs, Jackie
Authors
Linda McKie
Isobel MacPherson
Jackie Tombs
Abstract
Prison workers occupy a niche role. Balancing the care and welfare of prisoners while simultaneously restricting their freedoms is a stressful job, laced with danger, that occurs entirely within the bounded context of the prison. Here, wellbeing and professionalism are closely linked and articulated through a range of policies. This article explores the perceptions and experiences of staff in relation to a range of wellbeing and training policies in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). We interviewed 10 SPS employees, some working directly with prisoners and others in more centralised policy development and support roles. Thematic analysis found a high degree of contentment with such policies but highlighted tensions between their implementation and specific challenges of the prison context. Emerging themes included: supporting wellbeing within the complex dynamic of the prison world; addressing inherent tensions borne out of the underlying threat of violence; and the impact of professionalization. We conclude that while the prison service aspires to offer employees wellbeing and professionalization opportunities similar to those in other sectors, there is a need for such policies to more clearly reflect the unique context of prison work. This might involve co-design of policies and more careful consideration of the pressures, tensions and idiosyncrasies of that rarefied environment.
Citation
Fletcher, A., McKie, L., MacPherson, I., & Tombs, J. (2021). Impacts of Professionalization and Wellbeing Policies on Scottish Prison Workers. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, Article 757583. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.757583
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Oct 5, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Oct 25, 2022 |
Publication Date | 2021 |
Deposit Date | Nov 1, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 1, 2021 |
Journal | Frontiers in Sociology |
Publisher | Frontiers Media |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 6 |
Article Number | 757583 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.757583 |
Files
Published Journal Article
(662 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Fletcher, McKie, MacPherson and Tombs. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
You might also like
What is evidence as evidence is used? A case of dualism?
(2021)
Journal Article
Integrated Care Systems as an Arena for the Emergence of New Forms of Epistemic Injustice
(2020)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search